h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

From footnote 1:

"Most ways of getting batsmen out in cricket involve the wicket, a structure of three wooden stumps bridged by two little wooden bails, being broken. This means the ball knocking at least one bail off. If one is already off, the fielding team can knock the other one off, or if both are off, they can knock a stump out of the ground. If all the stumps are out of the ground, they can put one back and then knock it out again."

I had the idea, apparently mistaken, that if any part of the structure was upset, the play was over and the structure set back up. I'm particularly curious about the last sentence - the fielder's can put a stump back up and knock it down again? This reminds me of a T-shirt with a picture of Richard Nixon and the slogan, "I don't care if he's dead, I still want to impeach Nixon!"

I think it's a particularly unlikely scenario but I guess if a fielder running for an overthrow were to tumble headlong over the wicket and accidentally rip all the stumps out of the ground without touching the ball and was then able to run out the batsmen who are running for the overthrows then it just *might* happen.

Maybe it occurred once which is why there's a rule?